Living with Nomads

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Culture Documentary hosted by Kate Humble, published by BBC in 2015 - English narration

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Kate Humble travels to some of the world's most remote wildernesses to experience life as a nomad.

[edit] Nepal

Kate travels to south west Nepal in search of the country's last community of nomads, the Raute people. Almost all of the Raute population has already settled in Nepal and India - just one group of 140 people remain living as nomads. These hunter-gatherers still move camp every few weeks through the steeply wooded hills and mountains in one of the poorest countries on the planet. Life for this last Raute group is increasingly tough, as they face pressure to settle from Nepal's government and hostility from the farmers on whose land they camp. The Raute are famously private, and it proves a difficult task for Kate to get to know them. At the beginning they are wary, only engaging with her to ask for money. With perseverance and a rather unlikely rendition of Old MacDonald, Kate is slowly accepted into this tightly knit and proud community. But it's a demanding and emotional journey as she witnesses them move ever further from their ancient traditions and encounters first hand the hostility that the Raute face from mainstream Nepali society. As she helps them move camp twice, bearing heavy loads up punishingly steep hills, she comes face to face - and almost fist to fist - with the conflicts and contradictions facing Nepal's last nomads.

[edit] Siberia

Kate journeys to the far north of Siberia in the teeth of the Arctic winter to travel with the Nenets. These reindeer herders spend their lives migrating with the seasons up and down the Yamal Peninsula, following their herds from pasture to pasture. But it's a tough and precarious existence, living in temperatures that can drop to -54C. And the extremes soon take a toll on Kate - a lover of warm weather - and her crew, when on the way to meet their Nenet family their vehicle breaks down and they're forced to abandon their plans. With the chance to regroup at one of the tundra's slaughterhouses, Kate heads out to join a new family, who are migrating to their winter pasture. She finds a small group of Nenets, sharing a herd of over 300 reindeer, surviving in their reindeer-skinned chums (tents), living a harsh yet happy existence. Kate travels with them, sharing their chum by night, and learns about what it means to be a nomad in such an extreme environment. The Nenets have managed to survive out here for centuries, living symbiotically with their animals. But now they are facing new and seemingly insurmountable threats: changing weather patterns, linked to climate change, are decimating their herds; and the global gas industry is mining the tundra, damaging pasture and blocking the Nenets' migration routes.

[edit] Mongolia

Kate travels deep into the southern Gobi Desert in Mongolia to live with an extended family of Cashmere goat and yak herders. Here in the seemingly barren wastes of Asia's largest desert, nomads have lived cheek by jowl with nature for centuries. Chimid, the 78 year-old mother of ten, welcomes Kate into her large family. With their herds of goats, sheep, horses and yaks, this family are successful nomads. They move four times a year with the seasons across the Gobi, to sheltered winter pastures and mountain top summer grazing. It's claimed that 30 per cent of Mongolia's population still live a nomadic existence. Nomadism was banned under a Communist regime, but when it collapsed in the 1990s thousands of nomads returned to the Gobi. They continue to battle the harsh weather and attacks from wild predators, wolves and snow leopards. But they are adapting to the 21st century, embracing its benefits like satellite dishes, mobile phones and 4x4s. And despite the modern-day threats of the burgeoning mining industry and the temptations of urban living, these Mongolian nomads seem to have found a balance between tradition and the modern world.